“It’s the start of a new cycle, so it’s an opportunity to refresh, take a step back, have a bit of a reset and create a slightly different feel to that environment,” said interim director of men’s cricket Andrew Strauss after England’s controversial, Broaderson-less squad for the tour of West Indies was revealed.
Fast forward three weeks and England are fielding a XII for their sole warm-up game in the Caribbean with a bowling attack of Mark Wood, Chris Woakes, Ollie Robinson, Jack Leach and Craig Overton; a unit identical to the one fielded at Brisbane with the addition of Overton, the youngest of the quintet at 27 years old. The three exciting uncapped options in the squad – Matt Fisher, Saqib Mahmood and Parkinson – have been left out. Is this really the reset that we were promised?
Ollie Pope’s potential exclusion from the XI is also noteworthy. After a dire Ashes series, his selection in the touring party was no guarantee. There was also logic behind his inclusion. Not dissimilar to Zak Crawley, Pope is clearly a young talent who could have a special future in Test cricket. For a player as talented as Pope and with a first-class record like his, it might only take a couple of net sessions to regain some of the rhythm that only two years made him the most exciting young English batting talent since Joe Root broke onto the scene a decade previously.
It’s unclear, however, what is gained by taking him on tour to warm the bench. Surely time spent away from drink-ferrying duty, back in the nets with his lifelong coaches at Surrey would have been more beneficial? Doing so would not have meant that he was out of England’s short-term plans, but his inclusion, without the goal of actually playing him makes little sense, especially if in this “new cycle”, his spot prevents giving exposure to an uncapped batter who would more obviously benefit from time around the camp, someone like a Josh Bohannon.
At the squad unveiling, Strauss also said: “What I do think is it gives an opportunity at the moment for people to stand up and play leadership roles they haven’t previously. We need a good solid spine to that team moving forward. We need leaders, not just the captain, and this provides an opportunity for some of the players to do that.”
It’s an interesting and laudable aim, but it’s not as if the bowlers selected are complete novices. Wood and Woakes are both 32. Wood did well as arguably England’s most important bowler in Australia and has ‘led’ England to multiple overseas wins; Woakes has played 42 Tests. Even Robinson, fitness concerns aside, has thrived with additional responsibility less than a year into his international career, relishing the challenge of opening the bowling against India last summer in the absence of an injured Broad.
Really, the omission of both Broad and Anderson is even more unfathomable after seeing the XII selected to play at Antigua. There is little wrong with any of the selections on a case by case basis. But the sense collectively is an unimaginative one. Rather than being the reset that was promised, England are offering more of the same.
